Don’t Think About Your Fundraising

This fall, don’t think about your fundraising. Seriously. I hear you already. -         “But Jen, we raise most of our money in fall and early winter.” -         “But, but Jen, we always do our donor acquisition in the fall.” -         “But, but, but Jen, ARE YOU CRAZY!?” This fall, don’t think about your revenue target. Don’t think about your organization’s pressing [...]

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Pop quiz, hotshot…

What starts with “s”, ends with “n” and can immediately improve your fundraising results and your donor/prospect/community engagement? Nope, it’s not seclusion. Or seduction, secretion, sexualisation, sanitization, sentimentialization, septuagenarian or sesquipedalian. Gold star for anyone who got it. Segmentation. Seriously – I’m starting to wonder whether some charities think the $70,000 database whirring away in the corner of [...]

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Scott Stratten and Social Media

If you are on twitter, you may have heard of Scott – most people know him as @UnMarketing. Scott’s mission is to teach business how to stop marketing and start engaging with your clients, customers, donors, etc. He makes it sound easy because in many ways, it is easy. He was in Toronto this week talking [...]

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Twitter and the Twilight Zone

“Am I in the Twilight Zone?” was what I didn’t say. I was chatting with a client and she says “…how you do have time for blogging and social media? Doesn’t it take, like, ALL your time and energy? I just don’t have time for that. No way.” I’ve been creating and consuming social media content as [...]

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Are you listening?

After a fantastic experience buying a new car this week – I was reminded of the potential power and strength that some of these new tools can bring to your business or charity – if you choose to use them. For your information you can follow Achilles on twitter at @AchillesMazda Here is a video about google [...]

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Add some positive value

For those of you who follow me or Agents of Good on twitter, you may have noticed an increase in frustration with people who don’t add positive value to our daily working lives. And, strangely enough, those who seem to add the most negative value, seem to be the most popular. And that’s fine. Anyone [...]

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Can you manage the engagement?

Every time we turn around we are being told by the experts that we need to be blogging, be on twitter, dive into social media – and start making conversations and interacting with people – developing relationships. We are scolded and told we need we are not to be “all about me”. We are warned [...]

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Coverage of Haiti Transformative in Our Home

As his eyes widened, I realized it was his world that was actually expanding. If you have a child in your life, you’ll know what I mean when I say that it’s a brave new world for our children and their use of technology. My son Mason, at 4, knows how to access YouTube, search [...]

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Stop using social media for marketing your charity

There is no YOU in Twitter. Stop thinking of it as a way to get more donations and start thinking of it as a way to engage and build relationships with others.

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Twitter Case Study: War Child

“Don’t people just talk about how good their nap was? Or that they are eating ice cream?” My friend asked me… I held my tongue and sighed. Another colleague told me how in the past few weeks she had been contacted by countless (ok maybe a dozen) social media “experts” who breathlessly have told her, [...]

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